Emergency events at sea include man overboard situations which can occur on both sailboats, sailing and mechanically powered vessels. Other emergency conditions of interest include capsized vessels, vessels which have lost power, aircraft accidents which are in range of Coast Guard and other rescue vessels, astronaut recovery operations and of course sinking vessels. All operations designed to reduce personnel in these situations are complicated by the motion of an individual in the water due to ocean currents, wave motion and wind and by the relative motion of the vessel or aircraft from which the individual originates. Storms and fogs can make the problem of finding individuals lost at sea even more difficult. A time-consuming search with a large number of vessels and aircraft which covers a large area is often required.
Generally when personnel aboard a boat become aware that an individual has fallen overboard they perform any number of rescue-oriented actions from simply throwing a line or a life preserver to the individual to launching a smaller rescue craft, e.g. an inflatable life raft with some lift-sustaining emergency supplies. For an entire distressed vessel marker buoys may be deployed.
However on a medium-sized boat, e.g. from 20 to 40 ft, space for gear is often a problem so that one is often limited to using either a lift preserver or line to help rescue an individual who falls overboard. In the case of a sailboat the problem is further complicated by the fact that it is difficult to stop or reverse the direction 20 of motion which is controlled by the wind at least partially even when an auxiliary power system is on board. When heavy weather or fog is present an individual could be completely lost after falling overboard because of the forward momentum of the boat.
Many other problems are associated with existing rescue methods for an individual in the water. For example if provided with a light which can be used to attract a rescuer and if the light is easily visible to a dangerous fish, the individual can be lost in a very short time due to attack by the fish. In foggy or overcast environments a raft and rescue supplies might not be detected by the individual in the water without some attention-getting device on the raft. In heavy fog even an ordinary light might not be enough to signal the rescuing vessel. It is also desirable to provide redundant devices to provide backup.
It is an object of the instant invention to provide an improved emergency location marker system for an emergency event on water, especially for locating an individual who has fallen overboard.
It is also an object of the instant invention to provide an emergency location marker system for an emergency event on water which contains a number of redundant signaling devices useful for locating it in fog or heavy weather by both the individual in the water to be rescued and by the rescuing vessel or vessels.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide an emergency location marker system for locating and assisting an individual who has fallen overboard from a vessel on water, especially a sailboard, which has a number of redundant signaling devices useful for locating it by the individual in the water and by the rescuing vessel but which is extraordinarily compact when stowed on the vessel.
It is a further object of our invention to provide a compact emergency location marker system for an individual in the water which is easily detected by the individual in the water in all weather conditions and carries additional buoyancy, fresh water, flares and other survival-enhancing equipment.
It is an additional object of our invention to provide a compact emergency location marker system for an individual in the water which provides a means for supporting the individual in the water and which greatly shortens the time required to find the individual in the water by the rescue party.